Gender and Educational Inequality in South Korea: The Correlates and Consequences of Education

This thesis examines gender and educational inequality in South Korea. Its focus is to investigate the plausible mechanisms that account for the negative effects of education on married women's participation in the country's labour force by examining several aspects of gender inequalities. Korean women's education and labour market participation grew after the late industrialisation that occurred in the 1960s. Considering the historical exclusion of women in Korean society, this progress is noticeable. However, few Korean studies have examined patterns and trends of gender and educational inequalities systematically. This lack of attention propelled me to conduct a comprehensive study, especially a thorough analysis of the linkage among education, marriage and women's involvement in the country's labour markets. By using the most recent, nationally representative datasets, I found that the extent of gender'inequality in educational attainment remains substantial, even though the gender gap has generally decreased. The rate ofthe decrease was slowest for tertiary level of education, and women from farming class origins were likely to receive the lowest education. I also observed an unexpected pattern related to the benefit of education in occupational achievement: the impact of education on obtaining prestigious occupations was greater for women than for men. In relation to married women's labour market participation, my research revealed that the negative effect of education on women's labour market participation was affected by marital status and husbands' resources. Of interest, too, is the finding that highly educated women were less willing to accept paid jobs after they had married. This implies that strong educational homogamy in marriage and gender role attitudes may be important factors in deciding to stay at home. I believe that the results of my study, based as they are on current data, provide a comprehensive account of the patterns of gender. and educational inequality experienced by both genders in South Korea.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo